Students will collect soil samples and analyze them with some of the same procedures used by researchers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Soil microfauna (e.g. nematodes) will be extracted from the samples using a Baermann funnel. Students will compare their own data to published data from researchers working in Antarctica.
This lesson allows students to consider navigation around Antarctica, where longitudinal lines converge at South Pole. Through this study, students should learn about polar stereographic projection, satellites, navigation using various instruments, Antarctic geography, and NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne mission. In the first part of this 55-80 minute lesson, students will be faced with a dilemma. Their task will be
NASA’s Operation IceBridge (OIB) flies airborne missions each year over both Polar Regions, collecting ice thickness and extent data on glaciers, ice caps, ice shelves and sea ice. This data is useful to many disciplines studying climate, weather, ocean circulation, sea level and many related fields. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) houses and organizes the data
PolarTREC has been an amazing experience, wow! The heart of the PolarTREC program is the field expedition, which allows the teacher to be embedded in a field research team. STEM educators are passionate about what they teach but often lack access to meaningful opportunities to participate in basic research. Programs like PolarTREC provide that missing
My experience at McMurdo Station involved the study of neutrons caused by cosmic radiation from the sun. The sun can be very active. Changes in the sun's active surface can result in the ejection of high energy particles (from solar flares, coronal mass ejections, or related phenomena). Some of these particles can get sent toward the earth
The Revitalizing Power of Teacher-Researcher Collaboration
The nature of science is continually moving us forward; from a fresh set of findings we rush ahead excitedly to the next batch of questions. From this continual pursuit, new ideas, methods and instruments are designed by scientists and technicians at a rapid pace, in turn yielding new data. As science teachers, we need
Presentation prepared for the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education related to the PolarTREC 2017 Neutron Monitors for Solar Study expedition.
Students will examine sunspots and track them at different latitudes on the Sun.
This activity is adapted from the Tracking Sunspots activity on NASA’s Solar and Heliocentric Observatory (SOHO) website (2009): https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/classroom/for_students.html.
Objectives:
Students begin to familiarize themselves with solar activity by tracking sunspots at different latitudes on the Sun.
This activity is designed to get students thinking about